Yields climb on August jobs report

CHICAGO: US Treasury yields shot higher on Friday, propelled by August employment data that included a drop in the jobless rate but further slowing in job growth.

The benchmark 10-year yield, was last up 5.5 basis points at 0.6771%.

Nonfarm payrolls increased by 1.371 million jobs last month after advancing 1.734 million in July, the Labor Department's closely watched employment report showed on Friday. The unemployment rate fell to 8.4% from 10.2% in July. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 1.4 million jobs added in August and the unemployment rate sliding to 9.8%.

"The bond market certainly took it as an economically positive development," said Guy LeBas, chief fixed income strategist at Janney Capital Management in Philadelphia. "The instant response was from a small bit of selling to a large bit of selling within a few seconds."

The rise in yields followed Thursday's fall, which was sparked by big declines in US stock indexes that made safe-haven Treasuries more appealing to investors.

"The move in Treasury yields yesterday was pretty small relative to the stock sell-off," LeBas said.

He added that with Monday's Labor Day holiday looming, Treasuries should settle into a modest sell-off for the remainder of Friday.

The two-year US Treasury yield, which typically moves in step with interest rate expectations, was last up 1.4 basis point at 0.1388%.

A closely watched part of the US Treasury yield curve measuring the gap between yields on two- and 10-year Treasury notes, which is viewed as an indicator of economic expectations, was last at 53.60 basis points, about 3 basis points higher than at Thursday's close.